The Incidental Economist Reviews HCFO-Funded Work on Hospitals’ Responses to Medicare Cuts

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The Incidental Economist referenced a HCFO-funded study in a review of the literature on hospital responses to Medicare cuts. In the HCFO-funded study, Jennifer Mellor, College of William and Mary, and colleagues examined the impact of Medicare’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System on volume and site of care and found evidence of volume shifting. In response to Medicare outpatient price cuts, hospitals either decreased or retained their Medicare volume but increased their volume of private fee-for-service patients.